It’s been one of those days. Things were going great, and then…they weren’t. How many things can you need to wash in one afternoon? Lots!

This afternoon was worse than the day I was babysitting and the baby had diarrhea. What happened that day? The diarrhea came up and out the back of the diaper. It got on the onesie when I was trying to do a diaper change. So, I took the onesie off and in the process, the diarrhea got in her hair. This necessitated a bath. At least that day, that was the end of it.

Today’s escapade started while we were on a walk at a local park the next town over from us, near Kent, Ohio. We were having a nice walk through the woods and enjoying the scenery. All five dogs were relatively well behaved and the weather was beautiful. It was a fine day. As we were nearing the end of our walk, Claire suddenly had to poop. It was a little loose which is unusual in itself. Claire is a walking pooper as are many shelties. I think it helps to keep things from getting stuck in their fur. As she’s doing her business, she walks over top of her leash. So, she now has poop on her leash. She also manages to get her legs tangled up in the leash. I pull on the leash to extricate her and she flips over and rolls through some poop on the ground and comes up with it smeared across her shoulder. Now I have a poopy leash AND a poopy dog.

Thank goodness for that towel back in the car. I just have to walk Claire and Shelby back to the car without either of them running into the leash with poop on it as they walk on the trail. It sounds so easy. We did make it to the car with little more trouble. I wrapped the towel, that I keep in the car for wiping dog feet, around Claire and she wore it for the ride home like a cape. It actually seemed to calm her down and keep her still. Maybe it worked similar to a thunder shirt. My husband drove and I held Claire.

We made it across town and were nearing home in an otherwise uneventful trip. Until we got on our road about half a mile from home. Where Claire had explosive vomiting. Did I mention that Claire is our worst poop eater? And that all the dogs had been out in our fenced pasture this morning? The vomit was quite odiferous. My husband made disgusted sounds and immediately put the windows down. When Claire was sick, it bounced back off the window and went everywhere. Down the inside of the car and into the map pocket of the car door, on the seat cover, and on the floor. That wasn’t the worst of it. It also went on my coat sleeve and shirt sleeve, through my pants, and some bounced back and splashed me in the face and glasses. Fun times! I felt like I was in some sick Warner Brothers cartoon and at any moment the roadrunner was going to come zipping by with a “Beep, beep” because some other humorously, awful thing happened.

We got home and the first order of business was to give Claire a bath. My husband tried to help, but I told him, “Just let me handle it, I’m already covered in it”. No reason for both of us to suffer. After giving Claire a bath, the car needed a good scrubbing and wiping down, after which I put the seat cover, towels, leash, and my clothes and coat into the washing machine. Then I showered and washed my hair. Three hours later everything was as good as before we left for our walk. Whew!!!

How can one little girl cause so much work? I always thought that dogs were much easier than kids. I may have to rethink this!